adventurer, and I shrank from the ordeal. My hair had grown long on
the trip across; my boots were somewhat the worse for wear, and my
old-fashioned clothes (understood well enough by pioneers along the
trail) were dilapidated. I was not the most presentable specimen for
every sort of company. Already I had been compelled to say that I was
not a "corn doctor" or any kind of doctor; that I did not have patent
medicine to sell; and that I was not soliciting contributions to support
the expedition.

The first of March, 1907, found me on the road going eastward from
Indianapolis. I had made up my mind that Washington should be the
objective point. For my main purpose--to secure the building of a
memorial highway--Congress, I felt, would be a better field to work in
than out on the hopelessly long stretch of the trail, where one man's
span of life would certainly pass before the work could be accomplished.
But I thought it well to make a campaign of education to get the work
before the general public so that Congress might know about it.
Therefore a route was laid out to occupy the time until the first of
December, just before Congress would again assemble. The route lay
through Indianapolis, Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Buffalo, Albany, New
York, Trenton, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to Washington.

For the most part I received a warm welcome all along the route. Dayton
treated me generously. Mayor Badger of Columbus wrote giving me the
freedom of the city; and Mayor Tom Johnson wrote to his chief of police
to "treat Mr. Meeker as the guest of the city of Cleveland," which was
done.

At Buffalo, a benefit performance for one of the hospitals, in the shape
of a circus, was in preparation. A part of the elaborate program was an
attack by Indians on an emigrant train, the "Indians" being
representative young men of the city. At this juncture I arrived in the
city, and was besought to go and represent the train, for which they
would pay me.

"No, not for pay," I said, "but I will go."

So there was quite a realistic show in the ring that afternoon and
evening, and the hospital received more than a thousand dollars'
benefit.

Near Oneida some one said that I had better take to the towpath on the
canal to save distance and to avoid going over the hill. It was against
the law, he added, but everybody did it and no one would object. So,
when we came to the forks of the road, I followed the best-beaten track
and was soon tr